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Does anyone else remember this one? Car Wars was one of the greatest counter and map game to come out of the 70's and 80's (besides Squad Leader). The game let you design a car from the tires up, put weapons on it, and deathmatch with other players cars in arenas and on roads.

Desgins were rated on dollar amounts from $5,000 to unlimited class, and you could mount lasers, drop mines, use oil slicks, and put one-shot rockets in your car. The more weapons you put, the less weight you had for armor, which created some cool trade offs. You could design anything from motorcycles to big rigs with the system.

The only bad part of the game was the 10-phase, 1-second turn (1/10th of a second movement phases). To play a 20-second battle between four to six cars, it took anywhere from 4 to 8 hours of play. Also, since the counters were flimsy, sneezes were a big problem.

Never played it, but heard about it. I also read a short story by Roger Zelazny that kind of went along with this theme. It was (obviously) set in the future, and the cars were computerized- kinda like KITT from Knight Rider. A big problem they had with some of the earlier models was the computer going berzerk, sealing the windows and vents, then pouring carbon monoxide into the passenger cabing. Then you had these rogue killing machines rolling around. It was a pretty cool story. Would have been a bit o' fun, I suspect...

Shamefully, the original edition is out-of-print (Steve Jackson Games), and it's been replaced by a simpler battle-and-card game. Look for either the Car Wars Compendium or the Deluxe Car Wars set on EBay or at a hobby shop. Bah, whatever happened to all the fun things I used to do?

Shamefully, the original edition is out-of-print (Steve Jackson Games), and it's been replaced by a simpler battle-and-card game. Look for either the Car Wars Compendium or the Deluxe Car Wars set on EBay or at a hobby shop. Bah, whatever happened to all the fun things I used to do?